Medical Marijuana Is Putting Old People Back Into the Workforce

Retirement is for squares.

As if the millennial generation didn’t have enough to worry about with ever-more-flaccid career opportunities and increasingly stiff competition to land a satisfying job, the coming wave of cannabis normalization may make the whole work-life imbalance even worse.

According to a new study by the National Bureau of Economic Research, the onset of medical marijuana legalization could lead to “ increases in labor supply among older adults." So not only will you have to listen to your grandfather’s stories about being at Woodstock, you'll be forced to go up against him for that Spotify internship.

The labor market may soon be quite attractive to a mob of lit Boomers who’ve decided they aren’t quite ready to disrupt a continued course of wealth creation.

Nicholas and Maclean combed through annual national surveys of Americans over 50 and their spouses from 1992 through 2012, extracting health and retirement data. The uncovered facts lead the researchers to suspect that, with expanding pot access, the labor market may soon be quite attractive to a mob of lit Boomers who’ve decided they aren’t quite ready to disrupt a continued course of wealth creation.

Investigators determined that the enactment of medical marijuana laws was associated with a “9.4 percent increase in the probability of employment and a 4.6 percent to 4.9 percent increase in hours worked per week” among those over the age of 50.

They concluded: “These effects should be considered as policymakers determine how best to regulate access to medical marijuana.”

The researchers attribute graying America’s increase in workplace presence and productivity, after implementation of medical marijuana policies, to a sense that many of the chronic ailments best addressed by doctor-ordered cannabis—such as arthritis, glaucoma, and generalized pain—are more common among the older demographic.

One winning aspect of weed is that its benefits are not exclusive to the waning generations. Young adults enjoy a plethora of pot-ignitedlife enhancements too. This point of mutual fondness gives all the labor pool’s demographics a common interest to bond over during those smoky extended lunch breaks that young and old alike feel entitled to.